CTC BLOG

The Google Pixel 3 XL‘s most scoffed at feature is definitely its oddly large and ugly notch on top. For some users, things have just gotten worse by another notch, quite literally.

A software bug reported by a number of users now show a second notch on the right side of the display and Twitteratti can’t stop laughing at how horrendous it looks. The cause of the bug is yet to be known but as pointed out in a report by Android Police, it could be something connected to the orientation of the screen.

The notch on the Google Pixel 3 XL. Image: tech2/Prannoy Palav

The bug was first reported by a Twitter user Jessie Burroughs close to a week back, but because of the additional notch appearing to be a prank, it was overlooked at the time. Soon after, two other users who go by the username Kyle Gutschow and UrAvgConsumer also took to Twitter revealing an identical problem.

So my Pixel randomly grew another notch today. https://t.co/c6Pff9MVmW pic.twitter.com/ugjfLmCkDZ

— UrAvgConsumer (@UrAvgConsumer) October 24, 2018

If you do happen to have bought yourself a Pixel 3 XL or plan on buying one anytime soon, simply restarting the phone or fiddling around with the ‘hide notch’ option under Developer Settings seems to be a fix to the problem. Google did stay quiet for a while but has now written back to Android Police stating that a fix is on its way “soon”.

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California employs hundreds of engineers, and when they’re not working around this time, they’re busing carving pumpkins. That’s right, each year they compete in an ‘unofficial’ pumpkin carving contest to showcase their creativity “I don’t think, even at the time, they appreciated just how seriously our engineers were going to take it,” said NASA mechanical engineer Mike Meacham. Continue reading for more.

While Apple officially added support for Dual-SIM Standby to its 2018 iPhones with yesterday’s release of iOS 12.1, the number of carriers supporting the feature continues to be extremely limited due to the eSIM requirement. In fact, according to MacRumors, it appears that none of the U.S. carriers are quite ready to provide support for a second phone number out of the gate. AT&T has reportedly been telling customers that eSIM activations are being delayed until later in the year “due to technical issues in part related to Visual Voicemail,” while T-Mobile has said that support is in the works and will be rolled out simply “when its software is ready,” and Verizon notes that it still has some kinds to work out. According to a report by PCMag, Verizon customers are also being advised not to activate eSIMs from other carriers due to potential performance issues that could result in users’ Verizon connections getting downgraded to using the 2G CDMA network. The fourth carrier, Sprint, isn’t even on the list to support eSIM. Meanwhile, according to a report by iPhone in Canada, customers in Canada have already begun setting up Dual-SIM support on Bell’s network, one of the two Canadian carriers supporting eSIM. Apple has published a list of all of the carriers worldwide that are offering support for eSIM, which includes AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless with a footnote that notes that support is “Coming later this year.”

A new design patent filed by LG shows the company to have a different idea in mind for camera setups going forward.

It isn’t similar to what we saw on the LG V40 ThinQ which had three cameras on the rear placed in a horizontal fashion, but seem to be similar to the one sported by Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

According to a report by Lets Go Digital, The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published three design patents filed by approval by LG Electronics on 23 October 2018.

LG Patent. Image: Lets Go Digital

The three design patents show smartphones having a triple camera configuration on the back. The fourth sensor can be a camera or it can also be a flash as mentioned in the report. There is also one in which the fingerprint scanner is seen below the camera assembly.

The four sensors are placed in a square setup, almost identical to what we see on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

The patent also shows Model A to have narrow screen edges. Model B has bit more rounded edges and Model C has the most rounded edges. There is a direct relation between the rounding of the edges and the size of the bezels.

LG Patent. Image: Lets Go Digital

As the edges become rounder, the bezels become thinner as we can see Model C to have thinner bezels as compared to Model A.

The company seems to have stuck with the old-school ideas rather than jumping on the bandwagon. For example, the fingerprint sensor continues to be on the back of the phone, there is no notch drama, no hide and seek with the selfie camera through mechanical sliders and it also sports a 3.5 mm headphone jack!

There is no update on whether the next LG smartphones would roll out with a square camera setup though.

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There have been rumors of Samsung releasing a foldable smartphone for years, but even before Mobile World Congress rolls around, Royole Corporation has unveiled an actual prototype of such a device, called FlexPai. This tablet-sized phone can be folded into a book-sized package, but unfortunately, this iteration cannot yet fold flat. Continue reading to see a video of it in-action.

Apple has published updated design guidelines for the new 2018 iPad Pro models, providing app developers with tips on how to best optimize their apps for the new display, as well as tips on leveraging the features of the second-generation Apple Pencil. Apple notes that apps will run in Full Screen Display mode on the new iPad Pro as long as their base SDK is set to iOS 12.1 or later and they include a Launch Storyboard or iPad Pro launch image. Apple’s new page also provides suggestions on using Face ID, the A12X Bionic chip capabilities for machine learning and augmented reality, and provides two videos, Bringing Your Apps to the New iPad Pro and Designing for the New iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to help developers get started.

We are just a few days away from the start of the festive season and e-commerce websites are back with some good deals for online shoppers.

Flipkart a few days ago announced its Big Diwali Sale that sees various discounts on smartphones, gadgets and other electronics between 1 November and 5 November and Amazon did not want to be left behind.

Amazon has now announced its Great Indian Festival that will run from 2 November till 5 November.

Representational image. Reuters

As always, customers can expect a tsunami of deals and offers, so let’s have a look at what’s in store.

OnePlus 6T

Indeed, the highlight of the sale is the opening sale of OnePlus 6T which is expected to haul in a truckload of cash for the e-commerce site. This is more so because the OnePlus 6T will be exclusively sold on Amazon in India. Keeping in mind that this will be the OnePlus 6T’s first sale in the country, one can expect many exchange offers, cash-backs other deals to be a part of the launch.

For its first sale, the OnePlus 6T buyers will get an instant bank discount of Rs 2,000 on ICICI Bank credit and debit cards and for Citi credit cards. Amazon will also give customers an additional Rs 1,000 cashback that will be credited to your Amazon Pay Balance.

The OnePlus 6T. Image: tech2/ Anirudh Regidi

Apart from the above offers, buying a OnePlus 6T will also get you a discount on the Amazon Kindle service, Free Damage Protection from Servify and no cost EMI deals. Jio is also offering Rs 5,400 worth of discount coupons on future recharges (Rs 50 per recharge) along with up to 3 TB Jio 4G data.

Mobiles and accessories

OnePlus 6T aside, Amazon also has some offers on other smartphones that are on sale on its website. Those looking to buy a Samsung Galaxy A8+, the Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro and the RealMe 1 can check out exchange offers going up to Rs 6,000 off. Amazon will also offer low-cost EMI deals on smartphones starting from as low as Rs 999 per month. Assured value exchange offers will also be available on select devices with up to 70 percent off the current price. Smartphones aside, top-selling accessories will also start from as low as Rs 89.

Electronics

In this broader category, shoppers during the sale will be greeted with offers on laptops, cameras, headphones and storage products like hard drives. Amazon will offer up to Rs 30,000 off on laptops with EMI offers starting from as low as Rs 666 per month. There will be around 700+ cameras and audio devices on sale with up to 70 percent off on the usual price tags. Audiophiles will have to keep a close eye on the headphones section as there are often some attractive deals on popular brands. Alexa-enabled devices from Jabra and Bose will also see up to 70 percent off during the sale.

Xiaomi Mi Tv 4. Xiaomi

TVs and appliances

Amazon will have offers on up to 100 plus brands with deals on exchange offers, quick installation and free scheduled delivery. EMIs on Appliances will start from as low as Rs 290 per month. A highlight in the TV section will be the daily flash sales (that take place at 11 AM) on the Mi TV (49-inch) and BPL refrigerators.

Amazon will also offer up to 70 percent off on fashion brand and up to 80 percent off on home and kitchen products.

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost

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Officially called the “Tundra Pie Pro,” this custom Toyota concept made its debut at SEMA in Las Vegas, Nevada today. It’s powered by a Mirai-sourced hydrogen fuel cell that can not only power itself, but the entire bed-mounted, robotic kitchen. The vehicle can make a fresh pizza in 6-7 minutes after receiving the order, thanks to two robotic arms that cut, box and then hands the pie over to the customer. Continue reading for more pictures and information.

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Apple has also announced a new Apple Pencil to accompany it’s new 2018 iPad Pro models. The new Apple Pencil features inductive charging and is designed to magnetically attach to the edge of the new iPad Pro for pairing, storage and recharging, adding a new level of convenience for keeping the stylus close at hand while also ensuring it’s always fully charged. The inductive charging also means that the new Apple Pencil gains a seamless design, with no end cap to worry about falling off or losing. In addition, the new Apple Pencil also includes the ability to change tools with a double-tap on the stylus itself — a gesture that can be customized by app developers to perform specific contextual functions appropriate for whichever app is in use. While the original Apple Pencil is still compatible with the new iPad Pro models, the switch to USB-C will make it more difficult to charge the older Lightning-based stylus, making the new version even more attractive for those who are considering picking up one of the new iPad Pro devices. Apple is, however, charging a higher price of $129 for the new Apple Pencil, while continuing to sell the original version for $99.

A private aerospace institute in China has announced that it plans to launch an artificial moon into stationary orbit above the city of Chengdu in the Sichuan province city to serve as a sunlight reflector and provide a backup light source for residents. Wu Chunfeng, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute Co., said the artificial moon has been under development for a few years and ‘is now nearly ready to launch.’ Continue reading for another video and more information.

Chinese tech major Huawei plans to bring new tablets and PCs to India in addition to the planned launch of its flagship Mate 20 Pro smartphone, a top company official said at its headquarters here.

Huawei Mate 20 RS. Image: Huawei

In the smartphone business in India, Huawei has so far pushed its sub-brand Honor to compete in the affordable segment, but by bringing more Huawei-branded phones, it is now eyeing a greater pie in the premium segment as well which is currently dominated by OnePlus, Samsung and Apple.

It is not just the smartphone market in India that the Consumer Business Group division of Huawei is now focusing on.

“India is now a Tier-1 country for us and we will make new investments in the country to bring to the Indian consumers the benefits of new technology as early as possible,” Jim Xu, Vice President, Huawei Consumer Business Group, told a visiting group of journalists.

“We are making strategic investments in the PC business. In the smartphone segment, Honor will continue to do their business as usual even as we plan to increase the presence of Huawei-branded phones,” he added.

While Amazon is its online partner, Huawei will also look into forging partnership for offline sales.

“We understand the importance of offline business. We may shortly open either exclusive Huawei brand shops or Huawei display zone or display desks in India,” Xu said, adding that the company will initially be targeting the consumers in cities to promote the Huawei brand.

In the second quarter of this year, Huawei became the second-largest smartphone seller in the world after Samsung.

The Chinese telecommunications giant started its consumer devices business hardly a decade ago when it started selling its 3G dongle devices and today its product range includes smartphones, tablets, laptops, wearables, accessories as well as a number of smart home devices.

“It is very tough to build a global iconic brand from China,” Xu said, adding that Huawei bucked the trend by focusing on quality of products and superior after sales services.

“Instead of focusing on advertising, we have put the emphasis on creating product differentiators by investing massively on research and development,” he said.

In smartphones, these key differentiators include the battery life, supercharge technology, and high-quality photography, among others.

“Going ahead, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will completely change the smartphone experience for consumers. Today’s smartphones will soon start looking like feature phones, compared to the intelligent phones of the future,” he added.

Huawei PCs, on the other hand, are lightweight, portable and easy to use, Xu said.

The company, he added, is looking forward to bringing the technology edge that it has in smartphones to Huawei PCs and offer the consumers a complete digital eco-system that can make several tasks, including sharing of photos and files between devices, easier.

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WordPress.com launched a new Activity feature today, a tool for monitoring changes that occur on the site and actions initiated through the admin. It’s also available for Jetpack-enabled sites and the activity log can be viewed on WordPress.com or on the WordPress mobile apps.

Activity logs the following actions and presents them in an easy-to-read timeline on WordPress.com:

• Published or updated posts and pages
• Comment submission and management activity
• Settings and options modifications
• Login attempts by registered site users
• Plugin installations, updates, and removals
• Theme switches, installations, updates, and deletions

The Activity log can be useful for debugging client sites where the client cannot remember the actions they performed that changed their website. Users can also update plugins and themes directly from the activity log.

WordPress.com’s new Activity feature is reminiscent of XWP’s Stream plugin, which launched in 2013 with similar admin logging features stored locally. It offers support for multisite as well as several popular plugins, such as ACF, bbPress, BuddyPress, EDD, Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and Jetpack. Stream hasn’t gained much traction in recent years with just 30,000 active installations.

In 2014, Stream’s creators explored offering Stream as a service where the logs were stored in AWS and included configurable SMS notifications. The service was shut down in 2015 in favor of storing the activity logs locally due to the expense of cloud storage. Shortly after that it was acquired by XWP.

Automattic is also exploring offering its new Activity feature as a paid service. Currently sites on the Free plan only have access to the last 20 most recent events. Access is tiered based on the plan. Personal and Premium users have access to activities from the last 30 days and Professional users can see all activities for the past year. The ability to filter activities by type is also restricted to paid users only.

Jetpack site owners should note that Activity is activated by default – it’s not a module that can be turned on or off. The feature doesn’t send any new data to WordPress.com but rather offers a new interface for data that is already synced.

The full list of activities the feature collects, as well as privacy information related to data retention, is available for WordPress.com and Jetpack sites in the documentation for the feature. Users can report bugs to the Calypso GitHub repository.

Finally, Apple has given the Mac Mini a massive increase in performance, thanks to 4- and 6-core processors, up to 64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, and blazing fast all-flash storage (2TB maximum), equating to five times faster performance. You also get Thunderbolt 3 ports, the Apple T2 Security Chip and a 10Gb Ethernet option, making it a much more capable desktop than ever before. “Mac Mini is loved by customers for its ability to be used in incredibly diverse environments – from casual desktop use, to live professional performances, to multiple Mac mini computers powering through video renderings and compiling software code, to racks of thousands in giant app build farms – anywhere a small-but-mighty Mac is needed to get the job done,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. Continue reading for a hands-on video, pictures and more information.

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Apple has quietly removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from its latest iPad Pro models — a change that unsurprisingly wasn’t mentioned in today’s iPad Pro announcement. Since the new iPad Pro now uses a USB-C connection instead of Lightning, Apple is now selling a new USB-C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter for $9 that can be used for those who need to use wired headphones with the new iPad Pro models. The adapter is also compatible with Apple’s USB-C MacBooks. [via 9to5Mac]

A recent confirmation by Lenovo VP, Chang Cheng revealed that the new Lenovo Z5 Pro will launch on 1 November. The event poster which is claimed to be associated with the Z5 Pro reveals a mechanical slider which houses the front camera.

The phone is said to have a massive screen-to-body ratio and a slider similar to the recently launched Xiaomi Mi Mix 3.

Now the company VP has also unveiled details about the main camera setup through a poster posted on Weibo which shows that the Z5 Pro will feature dual 24 MP and 16 MP sensors.

Lenovo Z5 Pro. Image: Weibo

According to a report by GSMArena, the phone’s tagline when translated can be understood as, ‘An Epochal Flagship’.

The camera sensor is said to have AI-enabled Super Night Mode and also Super Video.

The teaser poster shows the camera sample revealing how the phone might capture a low-light shot.

The teaser is also said to confirm the fact that the Z5 Pro will feature two selfie cameras within the slider which is said to be positioned on both sides of the speaker. The proximity sensor is expected to be placed slightly on the right of the camera setup.

Leaked information about the phone so far states the possibility of in-display fingerprint reader and flagship grade hardware such as the Snapdragon 845 chipset and up to 8 GB of RAM.

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Honda started off the 2018 SEMA Show with a unique concept, called the “Open Air Vehicle,” that’s based on the Ridgeline Pioneer 1000 pickup. It aims to create “the ultimate open-air off-road Honda adventure vehicle,” and boasts the same doors as the Pioneer 1000 side-by-side, a custom-designed bed and modified tailgate panels. Inside, you’ll find Civic Type R seats reupholstered in waterproof Pioneer 1000 material, and there’s even smartphone holders from RAM Mounts. Continue reading for more pictures and information.

At its special event in New York this morning, Apple unveiled its new iPad Pro lineup, revealing the first significant redesign of the tablet’s form factor since its introduction in 2010. Like the iPhone X before it, the new iPad Pro models have removed the home button, significantly narrowing the bezels and incorporating Face ID for authentication. The displays remain LCD, although Apple has used the techniques developed for the iPhone XR Liquid Retina display to introduced rounded corners on the new iPad Pro screens, allowing them to push even closer to the edges of the device. Apple has also moved away from the more tapered edge design that all previous iPads have used, opting for squared-off edges instead that make the new iPad Pro have a uniform thickness throughout, while also providing a flat edge where a new version of the Apple Pencil can attach magnetically for inductive charging directly from the iPad Pro. The smaller iPad Pro retains the same physical size as the previous 10.5-inch version, but now sports an 11-inch screen due to the smaller bezels. For the 12.9-inch model, Apple has instead kept the screen size the same and reduced the dimensions, making it about the same size as a standard piece of letter-sized paper.

Perhaps even more significantly, Apple has eliminated the Lightning port from the new iPad Pro in favour of the more standard USB-C — a move intended to provide more streamlined compatibility with the accessories that professionals are likely to use, from cameras to external displays, and Apple noted that the iPad Pro can now also be used with a USB-C to Lightning cable to charge an iPhone. Whether this move signals an eventual move away from Lightning on all of Apple’s devices remains debatable, but it’s going to be a welcome change for many users who are the target audience for the iPad Pro, which require a higher degree of interconnectivity with external accessories.

As with prior models, the new iPad Pro features Apple’s A12X processor, a beefed-up version of the A12 Bionic used in the 2018 iPhone lineup that features 10 billion transistors, alongside an eight-core CPU and seven-core GPU that promises to deliver a performance boost of 35 percent over the prior iPad Pro models — performance that Apple boasts is faster than 92 percent of “all portable PCs” — as well as double the graphics performance. The A12X also incorporates the same new Neural Engine technology as the iPhone XS and iPhone XR, allowing the new iPad Pro models to take advantage of full augmented reality and other machine learning capabilities.

Both iPad Pro models are available for pre-order today in 64 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and a new 1 TB configuration, as either Wi-Fi only or LTE-equipped versions. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 64 GB Wi-Fi model, topping out at $1,699 for the 1 TB Wi-Fi + Cellular version; the 12.9-inch iPad Pro ranges from $999 to $1,899. Both models are expected to be available in stores on Nov. 7.

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Chinese tech giant Huawei Consumer Business Group on 30 October announced it is ready to bring its wireless charging capabilities with the launch of premium Mate 20 Pro smartphone in India next month.

The wireless charger is developed on the Qi standard for universal compatibility, thus, allowing it to identify smartphones, earbuds and other devices and adjust output power automatically to charge them safely.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro features an in-display fingerprint scanner.

With a 10-minute 15W wireless charging session, the wireless charger tops up the battery 12 percent, while a 30-minute charge gives the battery 31 percent juice, the company said in a statement.

“With the launch of the flagship Mate 20 Pro slated next month, wireless reverse charging is also a feature that the device is capable of, thus, enabling users to take maximum advantage of the large battery inside the device to charge other Qi-enabled devices,” the company added.

The Mate 20 Pro would be the first device from Huawei’s stable which is powered by the world’s first 5G-ready 7nm (nanometre) chipset Kirin 980, equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, to launch in India.

Other notable features of the wireless charger include comprehensive safety protection features through which the device detects foreign objects such as keys, coins and other metal objects and automatically powers off.

The Huawei wireless charger also has a built-in chip that can adjust the output power automatically according to the ambient temperature and real-time battery percentage.

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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will soon pass within 15 million miles of the solar surface, making it the only spacecraft to ever get so close to the sun, ever. The probe is set to make 24 close approaches to the sun over the next seven years, with the closest pass being 3.8 million miles. “It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,’ said Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Continue reading for two more videos and information.

Apple has updated its iPhone User Guide for iOS 12.1, suggesting that the release of the iOS 12 update may be imminent, and confirming the debut of promised features such as Group FaceTime and Dual-SIM support, as well as providing some additional detail on how these features will work and where they will be supported. While Apple unveiled Group FaceTime as a feature earlier this year at WWDC, it was quietly removed from the final release of iOS 12 to be deferred to a later release. The company also similarly showed off the Dual-SIM Standby feature at its September iPhone event, white tacitly noting that the feature would be coming in a later software update. Both features made an appearance during the iOS 12.1 beta cycle, but with Apple having been known recently for including features in iOS betas that didn’t make it into final releases, today’s appearance of the iOS 12.1 user guide is the first acknowledgement that these features will in fact be making their appearance in iOS 12.1. [via 9to5mac]

With the launch of OnePlus 6T at an event here, Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus late Monday marked its entry into the US after partnering with mobile services operator T-Mobile.

OnePlus 6T. Image: OnePlus USA

“The OnePlus 6T and T-Mobile’s LTE network were made for each other. Customers have been asking us to help bring OnePlus to the US. We listened and delivered,” John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, said in a statement.

“We found a kindred spirit in OnePlus — a company who is just as focused and customer experience obsessed as the Un-carrier.”

The five-year-old Chinese smartphone player’s new device is in line with the recent leaks and features a very small waterdrop style notch, high-end specifications, and an affordable price when compared against the 2018 flagship competition.

“The OnePlus 6T is coming exclusively to the Un-carrier, making T-Mobile the first and only wireless provider in the United States to offer a OnePlus device ever! And to celebrate, T-Mobile customers can get their hands on this super hot superphone for more than half off,” the company said.

Un-carrier customers can snap one up earlier than anyone else exclusively at the T-Mobile Times Square store starting Tuesday.

Starting November 1, the OnePlus 6T goes on sale nationwide in T-Mobile stores and on T-Mobile.com.

The OnePlus 6T packs 128GB of internal storage and 8GB RAM and the much talked about fingerprint under display functionality.

There’s a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor under the hood, a 16MP + 20MP dual rear camera and 16MP front-facing camera.

The company has included a fast-charging 3700mAh battery and a 6.41-inch 2K OLED screen.

The Shenzhen-based smartphone company was set to launch the handset at an event in India on Tuesday.

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IKEA may be known for its build-it-yourself furniture, but did you know they offer a wide variety of other products too, including plush toys? One of their most famous characters is BLAHAJ, a plush toy shark, who has become a big social media star. “Big and safe to have at your side if you want to discover the world underneath the sea. The blue shark can swim very far, dive really deep and hear your heart beating from far away,” according to the product description. Continue reading for more pictures.

Photo credit: Slashleaks

As many already know, companies usually build a few different prototypes before releasing the official product, and that holds true for smartphones too. ASUS’ upcoming ZenFone 6 flagship smartphone had a few of these leaked online, and the first thing many noticed was a strange teardrop-shaped notch. These may not be the final design, but if the production model looks anything like this, it will be hard to hid that notch when viewing things full-screen. Continue reading for more pictures and information.

Nearly 80 per cent of heritage financial services firms globally will go out of business, become commoditised or exist only formally but not competing effectively by 2030, Gartner said on Monday.

These firms will struggle for relevance as global digital platforms, fintech companies and other non-traditional players gain greater market share, using technology to change the economics and business models of the industry, said the market research firm.

“Established financial services providers will have to move faster on digital business by building digital platforms or finding niche products and services to sell on others’ platforms,” said David Furlonger, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner.

A man uses an iPhone 7 smartphone to demonstrate the mobile payment service Apple Pay at a cafe in Moscow, Russia, October 3, 2016. Picture taken October 3, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev – S1BEUEYZNGAB

Banks face a growing risk of failure if they continue to maintain 20th century business and operating models, he warned.

According to Gartner’s 2018 CEO survey, while financial services CEOs continue to prioritise revenue growth, there has been a clear shift toward emphasising efficiency and productivity improvements.

“The future of the financial services industry is increasingly weightless, requiring few physical assets to establish or maintain a presence. That makes the industry especially vulnerable to disruption by digital competitors,” noted Pete Redshaw, Practice Vice President at Gartner.

The speed of digital transformation in financial services partly depends on regulation.

“In some nations, conservative regulations will inhibit innovation, while other countries, such as Australia, Brazil, China, India and the UK, will use regulation to speed transformation,” said Gartner.

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iLounge and InvisibleShield are giving away an iPhone XR and InvisibleShield Glass+ VisionGuard.

As we use devices more, our exposure to high-energy visible blue light (HEV) increases. HEV blue light has been shown to contribute to digital eye strain which can cause dry and irritated eyes, sleep disruption and loss, blurred vision, and premature eye aging, especially in children. InvisibleShield has developed a new screen protector with Eyesafe® technology that not only protects your phone from scratches and impacts, but also filters harmful blue light from your device screen.

Protective Eyesafe® Layer
The Eyesafe® technology in VisionGuard protects your eyes from blue light which can contribute to digital eye strain. By blocking harmful wavelengths of light before they leave your screen, VisionGuard is an easy choice for those who care about eye health.

Preserves the True Colors of Your Screen
Glass+ VisionGuard protects your eyes from harmful blue light while maintaining the superior color performance of your device display. Instead of removing blue entirely and distorting your screens color like some eye health solutions, VisionGuard has been expertly engineered to maintain the brilliant look of your screen.

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Glass+ VisionGuard is chemically strengthened at the molecular level to preserve that glass-like feel of your screen. Its proprietary Ion Matrix technology provides the ultimate defense against drops, dings, and scratches.

Advanced Clarity
Glass+ VisionGuard is designed to work flawlessly with the enhanced optics of your device’s screen. Its 100% clarity rating means high-definition screen protection that’s so clear, you won’t even know it’s there.

To find out more about InvisibleShield’s protection products or Zagg products, please visit https://www.zagg.com or it’s many social channels.

Enter to win. Good Luck!

Official Rules:

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.

This giveaway begins as of this posting and ends on July 1, 2017 at 11:59PM Pacific Time.

No purchase is necessary to enter.

There will be five (5) winners announced on July 3, 2017. Prizes will be shipped from the sponsor and may take 3 – 6 weeks.

One entry per person.

Must be 18 years or older to enter. Under 18? Ask a parent or guardian to enter for you.

Void where prohibited.

Associates, employees, principals, or relatives thereof of iLounge are not eligible.

All taxes are the sole responsibility of the winners.

iLounge reserves the right to modify these terms to comply with the laws of the State of Idaho, to correct errors and omissions, or to ensure fairness as determined by iLounge. Such modifications, if any, will be posted at iLounge.

Your entry implies and expresses your agreement to these terms and your waiver of any other rights, related to such giveaways, you may have in any jurisdiction.

The fourth annual php[world] conference is just two weeks away. The event is dedicated to uniting the PHP community and will be held November 14-15, 2018, in Washington, D.C.

This year the organizing team created a “Content Advisory Board” to ensure the event included sessions that will appeal to everyone. The board includes two WordPress Developers, two Drupal developers, and two more more general PHP developers. They reviewed all incoming talk submissions and gave organizers ideas on what they thought would be of greatest interest to each community.

php[world] has traditionally included several topics and speakers from the WordPress world. This year the program features a full-day training workshop on Gutenberg development led by Josh Pollock and Zac Gordon. The workshop is called The Future of WordPress Development and is available through a separate day ticket.

“We’ve always tried to focus php[world] on being the PHP conference that appeals to WordPress and Drupal developers as well,” conference co-chair Eli White said. “We all write PHP (and JavaScript) code, and the DC area is full of WordPress and Drupal development shops. In fact, the majority of people in the local PHP user groups are doing WordPress development anyway. So we should all just be learning from each other.

“For WordPress, that was obviously Gutenberg. Currently the release date for WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg is November 19th, just a few days after php[world], and so it’s a really important topic for any developer who works with WordPress to be familiar with.”

Workshop attendees can expect to become better acquainted with extending Gutenberg. The instructors plan to cover the basics of block creation as well as more advanced topics like making blocks dynamic and creating advanced blocks with the WordPress REST API and Redux.

“For the workshop, our goal is to get folks comfortable with what they could do with Gutenberg,” Josh Pollock said. “We’ll cover the anatomy of a block, and different patterns for creating simple and complex blocks. We’ll go over each of the types of block types you can create and have hands-on time to play with these new skills and ask real time questions.

“Developers should leave with an understanding of the different types of blocks they can build and why. They’ll also get plenty of example code, links, and advice they can use when it’s time to build blocks for their own WordPress projects.”

The event includes a few other sessions geared towards WordPress developers: David Wolfpaw is giving a workshop called “Building WordPress Themes: A Primer” and Mo Jangda from Automattic is giving a talk on “How to Handle a Site Outage.” There is another full-day training on modern PHP security that happens the day before the Gutenberg workshop that White said the WordPress Developers on the content board urged them to include.

The main conference is also hosting many sessions that would benefit WordPress developers who want to sharpen their PHP skills. A few highlights include:

Check out the full schedule on the php[world] website.

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Software major Tech Mahindra on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japanese electronic company Rakuten for building next-generation (4G and 5G) software-defined network laboratories in Bengaluru and Tokyo.

“Our collaboration with Rakuten will help us further drive innovation in the 5G space and enable us to enhance customer experience and lead the transformation in mobile network technology,” CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra, said in a statement.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 with 5G network. Image: Weibo

The collaboration is aimed at driving innovation to bring transformation of mobile network technology and enhance customer experience for users in Japan.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Tech Mahindra to launch world-class labs in Tokyo and Bengaluru that will contribute to creation of the next generation of mobile broadband, enabled by 5G,” said Mickey Mikitani, Chairman, President and CEO, Rakuten, Inc.

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The network labs in Tokyo and Bengaluru will focus on fostering innovation in the telecom space, banking on Tech Mahindra’s capabilities in the 5G domain such as mobile networks, IT, Cloud and enterprise applications and Rakuten’s vision to create a fully automated 5G-ready network in Japan.

Tech Mahindra will also provide network integration capabilities to add value to the lab operations.

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Photo: REUTERS/Mike Blake

Apple’s tab appears to be growing rapidly the company continues its fight with Qualcomm over patents and royalty payments. Bloomberg reports that Qualcomm told a federal court in San Diego last week that Apple is now $7 billion being in its royalty payments the company, a debt that has presumably been running up since Apple began withholding payments in early 2017. According to a statement by Qualcomm lawyer Evan Chesler, Apple is “trying to destroy our business,” and “the house is on fire.” Qualcomm has been pushing to have approximately 56 patent claims and counterclaims cut from a lawsuit that has been going on between it and Apple and Asian manufacturers, while Apple has in turn halted all royalty payments to Qualcomm through its manufacturers, pending the outcome of what has now escalated to around 100 legal cases in various jurisdictions around the world. Apple is arguing the Qualcomm is trying to use its position to bully customers into payment excessive royalties, and Apple’s counsel, Ruffin Cordell, told the judge at Friday’s hearing that “You can’t just let Qualcomm walk away from this.”